@ INCREASE SALES THROUGH THE POWER OF AFFILIATE
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Table of Contents p.3
Affiliate Marketing Performance
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Rakuten Affiliate Network
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Our Clients
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The Rakuten Affiliate difference
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Success Stories
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AFFILIATE MARKETING PERFORMANCE The Industry to Date
The Stats
The Modern Shopper
Affiliate marketing has come on leaps and bounds since its arrival in the early 1990’s. From a lonely link on a page that fought its way to get noticed, to today’s popular shopping hubs, voucher code sites and loyalty programmes; affiliate marketing continues to see innovation, complexity and opportunity for online retailers.
An Online Performance Marketing study conducted for the Internet Advertising Bureau highlighted that in 2014, consumers made 125 million purchases through publisher sitestotalling £15.4 billion. This resulted in a return of £15 for every £1 invested by advertisers (6% growth year on year). A subsequent YouGov study revealed that cashback sites are currently the most frequently used publisher model, and around twothirds (67%) of people who’ve used them do so at least once a month.
Today’s savvy consumer spends more time browsing the web for the best deals and promotions from their favourite retailers, and voucher, loyalty and cashback sites are becoming an increasingly popular way to find them. In light of this, affiliate marketing presents an extremely cost-effective way of reaching new customers, increasing brand awareness, and driving incremental revenue for online retailers.
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RAKUTEN AFFILIATE NETWORK Who We Are
International Reach
Leaders in Fashion and Luxury
Founded in 1996, Rakuten Affiliate Network (previously known as LinkShare) is a global affiliate network facilitating long-term, profitable partnerships between advertisers and publishers. The UK network alone has over 350 advertisers and 350,000+ registered publishers, and sees double digit growth year on year.
We have dedicated affiliate networks in the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Australia and Brazil, with localised language capabilities and currency support in each market.
Rakuten Affiliate Network boasts the largest advertiser portfolio of luxury and high end fashion brands in the UK (91% of total market share). Our happy clients include Harvey Nichols, NET-A-PORTER, House of Fraser, REISS and Whistles. Brands like these choose Rakuten Affiliate Network for our in depth understanding of the fashion and luxury space, and the extensive range of content and blogger publishers available on the network.
Brands looking to expand on an international level can utilise our local teams, who will recommend top publishers in the region. These partners will act as your brand ambassadors in the market, to trigger awareness and increase sales.
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Rakuten Affiliate Network has a fantastic understanding of the fashion and luxury space. Our partnership has resulted in impressive year-on-year growth, and we are excited to further develop our relationship on an international scale. Natasha Lawley,
Performance Marketing Manager Farfetch
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OUR CLIENTS
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The Rakuten Affiliate difference Transparency - Omnichannel Measurement and Attribution
Strategy - Superior Customer Service
Reach - Quality Publishers
We believe that advertisers shouldn’t have to pay for transparency into their marketing investments. Cadence Essential, our omnichannel measurement and attribution platform, empowers marketers with cross-channel, actionable insights on all marketing performance to help you understand which publishers are truly adding value and contributing to your ROI. Implemented in just 30 days, all Rakuten Affiliate advertisers have access to Cadence Essential at no additional charge.
Our team-based approach to account management is crucial to the success of every single programme. Each account manager is supported by our publisher development team, analyst team, strategic account directors and marketing department.
Unlike other affiliate networks, we have a high volume of quality content publishers and bloggers on our platform, particularly in the fashion, luxury and beauty verticals. Publishers like these are particularly popular with our advertisers for their personal recommendation-style approach to advertising.
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SUCCESS STORIES 8
Dune London Overview The Dune Group has over 20 years of experience in the footwear industry and has grown through a passion and dedication to excellence in product development and in-house design.
Online Marketing Objectives • • •
Increase online sales Raise brand awareness through online promotions Test new markets without tapping into additional budget
Strategy • • •
Partnered with Rakuten Affiliate Network for its expertise in the fashion sector Developed relationships with cashback and loyalty sites such as Top Cashback and Incentive Networks by offering commission increases and providing assets for good performers Opened further affiliate programmes through Rakuten Affiliate’s US, French and German networks
Results When comparing affiliate performance in 2014 with 2013, Dune saw an increase in: • Site visits by 150% • Revenue by 97% 9
UNIQLO Overview UNIQLO is a leading Japanese designer, manufacturer and retailer of casual wear. The company operates in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France, Malaysia, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Indonesia.
Online Marketing Objectives
Strategy
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Raise online profile and extend customer base around the United Kingdom Establish growth through a combination of partnerships with key fashion content sites, bloggers and “super publishers” to boost the strength of the brand online
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Utilised affiliate marketing as part of a wider online strategy, and partnered with a long-standing affiliate network Developed partnerships with top performing fashion sites and volume partners by offering exclusive commission rates and access to bestselling products with tagged deep links Developed relationship with bloggers by offering samples from key collections
Results UNIQLO has engaged with a variety of innovative publishers, resulting in an extremely successful affiliate marketing programme for the Japanese brand. Partnerships with cashback and loyalty sites (Quidco and Top Cashback) in particular have driven the most traffic and sales, whilst maintaining high AOV from the promotion of UNIQLO’s top collections such as the Djokovic range during Wimbledon. • •
Sales have risen by 10% (year to date) Q2 2015: 53% growth in sales and 49% increase in orders (year on year)
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Farfetch Overview Farfetch is a global community of over 300 luxury fashion boutiques, offering an inspirational shopping experience to fashion-forward consumers.
Online Marketing Objectives • • •
Grow the affiliate channel by 61% year on year Expand brand awareness and reach in global markets Increase global performance of blogger partners
Strategy •
Leverage Rakuten Affiliate Network’s physical presence in multiple regions: opened programmes in the UK, US, Australia and Japan: ◦◦ Core global account team in the UK- manages coordination and distribution of all affiliate communications ◦◦ Global publisher recruitment strategy: ensures each region focuses on the same publisher verticals • Developed partnerships with long-tail publishers through a “re-activation campaign” (commissionincrease incentives for lower-performing partners) • Weekly blogger recruitment in all markets (dependant on social media following, branding and target demographics) • Launched a blogger competition, with the chance to win a Farfetch gift card for those who met predefined sales targets 13
Results • •
91% increase of the global affiliate programme (year on year) 349% growth in UK blogger performance (year on year)
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Mountain Warehouse Overview Mountain Warehouse has been developing high quality outdoor gear for all the family since 1997. By working through an established affiliate network, Mountain Warehouse wanted to build strong partnerships with top voucher publishers like VoucherCodes.co.uk, in order to acquire new customers and boost their online revenue.
Online Marketing Objectives
Strategy
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New customer acquisition Existing customer retention Boost in sales through the affiliate channel
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Partnered with VoucherCodes.co.uk to run an exclusive 2 week offer Customers were offered 20% off all products on the Mountain Warehouse website Unique discount code used at the checkout
Results • •
512% increase in sales through the Rakuten Affiliate Network £30,000 revenue boost
These figures were a direct result of the exclusive offer with VoucherCodes.co.uk.
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About us Rakuten Affiliate Network is part of Rakuten Marketing, the global leader in omnichannel marketing and a division of Rakuten. Inc.
Want to know more? Get in touch with Rakuten Affiliate Network at rm-salesuk@mail.rakuten.com Let’s connect on Twitter @RakutenMKTG_UK rakutenmarketing.co.uk